1. Field
The invention relates to a portable electronic device. More specifically, the invention relates to an electronic device with sliding retractable keyboards that expose different key arrangements depending on the direction of keyboard deployment and orient the display in relation to the direction of keyboard deployment.
2. Related Art
Handheld computers, personal digital assistants (PDA's), cellular telephones, MP3 players and similar devices have several characteristics in common. Generally, these devices are battery powered, provide the user with a means of input and output and are required to be small in size. If the device has a display there is generally only one.
Typically the devices are light weight and sized to fit in a pocket. Design restrictions are placed on every component of the device to accomplish the size and weight goals. If a component can be completely eliminated or combined with another component, a large weight and size reduction can be realized.
To eliminate the keyboard, PDA's make use of a touch sensitive screen and pen input system. Handwriting recognition software is used to detect and interpret the meaning of pen strokes. PDA's work reasonably well, however, the advantages of the keyboard for speed and accuracy have not been overcome.
One prior approach is to carry a separate keyboard and connect it to the device when needed. There are several disadvantages in this arrangement which include the need to purchase a separate keyboard, the possibility of mechanical failure due to the repeated inserting and removing of the keyboard connector and the need to carry the keyboard as an extra component. Another prior approach uses a wireless connection means to overcome the mechanical connection failure possibilities. However the other disadvantages of a separate keyboard still persist.
Additional prior approaches have keyboards that retract when not needed and deploy when needed for input. A traditional alpha-numeric arrangement of keys for a keyboard is referred to as a QWERTY keyboard. This keyboard gets its name from the letters of the first six alphabet keys on the top row reading from left to right. While this is one of the most recognized and used keyboard layouts, it imposes restrictions on designers with regard to it dimensions. This traditional keyboard when viewed and used by the user is typically much longer in width than in height. The ratio of this keyboard's dimensions may not be easily adapted to the device as designed.
For example, a device is designed primarily for ergonomics and aesthetics such as a phone. The device design is such that as viewed by the user, the length dimension is longer than the width dimension and the width dimension is relatively thin. This device's dimensions directly conflict with the dimensions that are used for a QWERTY type keyboard. That is to say that a keyboard that is wider in relation to height (QWERTY) and as large as the device's real estate can provide would have to be stored 90 degrees to the basic form of the device. Or the keyboard would have to fold or twist about hinges to get the keyboard to rotate 90 degrees so that it is positioned appropriately for the user to use when viewing the screen in the customary way.
Another traditional keyboard that needs to be described and with which many modern users are familiar is a numeric keyboard typically used with phones. The traditional numeric phone keyboard starts on the top row and reads from left to right. In this way there is typically three rows of numbers that include the numbers 1-9 and a fourth row with the number zero and other function keys. Typically within the constraints of a phone keyboard additional function keys can be provided comprising; send, receive, voice-mail and others. Even though there is only a small number of keys required to input a phone number, phones have become smaller and more light weight thus imposing increasingly restrictive constraints on phone style keyboard arrangements.
Because the device is proportioned based on constraints that are not necessarily adaptable to keyboard designs, designers have struggled with size and relative dimensions of these keyboards. Designers have created different key arrangements to try and present the needed keys in dimensions that fit within the given designed dimensions. Keys in alphabetical order and straight slanted lines have been used. Keys in curved lines have been used. Staggered key arrangements have been used. Keys of various shapes have also been used. The large number of different types of keyboard arrangements presented to the modern user is indicative of the intense struggle by designers to provide the user with a keyboard for inputting information without exceeding the other design restrictions.
Commercial success of a portable electronic device depends in part on the number of devices sold. The device must be “pleasing” to the user to attract the user to becoming a consumer and buy the device. Many factors are involved with creating a “pleasing” device. Intuitive use of the device is one of these factors. If a user can use the device without referencing a user's manual then the device is very intuitive and therefore that portion of use is very “pleasing” to the user. One part of creating an intuitive device is providing the user with traditional input interfaces, such as a traditional QWERTY or a traditional phone style keyboard arrangement. In this way the user is presented with an interface to the device that they are already familiar with.
Another pleasing aspect of a device is quality. A user or purchaser of a device typically will associate quality with structural integrity and will be drawn to devices that display high quality or high structural integrity. If there is weakness or undesirable flexibility in the structural connection used to connect the keyboard to the device the user will associate that weakness or flexibility with poor quality. Therefore to promote commercial success of a portable device it is also important that the device have high structural integrity at the point of keyboard attachment.
Consider now modern hybrid products where a cellular telephone and a PDA are combined into one device. There is the need to provide the user with the ability to use two different keyboard arrangements. To promote commercial success and provide the user with an intuitive device, a traditional QWERTY and phone style keyboard needs to be made available to the user. The keyboards also deploy in such a way as to promote the feeling of high quality or high structural integrity. Each of these keyboards however in their traditional form imposes dimensional restrictions for the designer to overcome.